The present invention relates to a cigar lighter with a safety blade terminal, particularly for motor vehicles.
Such a cigar lighter is described in the French patent application published under number U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,126. It conventionally comprises a removable heating plug and a lighting body which accommodates the heating plug in a socket along an assembly direction. The bottom of the socket carries a bimetallic strip, with electrical insulation. A potential difference is created between the bimetallic strip and the socket for supplying electrical power to the heating plug.
The socket carries a safety blade terminal (more precisely, a safety bimetallic strip in U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,126, in electrical contact with the bimetallic strip, which is able to come into contact with a tag linked electrically with the socket in the event of inadvertent overheating in normal operation. In the event of overheating, the safety blade terminal is thus linked electrically to the socket which causes a short circuit which entails blowing of the fuse provided in the vehicle in the power supply circuit of the cigar lighter.
Thus effective protection is achieved against overheating which does not require the cigar lighter to be dismantled in order to re-establish operation thereof, since it is sufficient to change the fuse corresponding to the power supply circuit of the cigar lighter.